Latino Literature Prizes Commend Poet, Novelist

Olga Orozco of Argentina has won the Juan Rulfo International Latin American and Caribbean Prize for literature, a $100,000 award conferred for lifetime achievement.

Orozco, 78, has written 10 volumes of poetry, including “Los Juegos Peligrosos” (“Dangerous Games”), winner of the Buenos Aires Poetry Prize in 1962. Inspired by the French surrealist movement, her work was characterized by one Rulfo judge as being “not only of the cerebellum and the spirit, but also of the veins, the stomach, the heart, the sex.” English translations of some of Orozco’s poems can be found in “Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry” (University of Texas Press, 1996).

Meanwhile, “El Amor Que Me Juraste” (“The Love You Promised Me”), a novel by Silvia Molina of Mexico, has been chosen for the sixth annual Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz prize for outstanding fiction by a woman writing in Spanish. Of 30 works under consideration, it was recognized “for its subtle, concise and measured treatment of female adultery, a subject which continues to be taboo in Latin America.”

A 52-year-old native of Mexico City, Molina has written several novels and short-story collections. The Sor Juana prize (co-sponsored by The Times) includes a contract for English-language publication of the novel by Curbstone Press.

Orozco and Molina will receive their awards during the 12th Guadalajara International Book Festival Nov. 28-Dec. 6 in Mexico.